There are several active safety external sensing technologies that currently exist to improve safety and comfort of occupants and drivers of vehicles. For example, vehicles equipped with an adaptive cruise control with stop and go feature use long range sensors (i.e. radar and or lasers) to detect, track and provide path information to determine potential vehicle threat assessments. Based upon this information, vehicle speed and braking forces can be adjusted to reduce the risk of a collision. In addition, cameras are used to detect and classify objects of interest (vehicles, lane markers, road edges, etc.,) so that features can be activated (i.e., adaptive cruise control, blind spot detection, lane departure warning, etc.,) to improve driver comfort and awareness. There are also vehicle systems that control the power train, as well as the steering and braking functions. At the same time there are internal sensing technologies that monitor the driver to determine whether he/she is impaired. These types of systems provide a warning to alert the driver when it appears that he/she is impaired or non responsive to the alert warnings. However, in prior art systems, if the driver does not respond to the warning, there is usually nothing more that can be done. The same condition can exist when the driver has a sudden health concern. When these concerns arise, additional counter measures need to be taken to improve the safety of the driver and the vehicle's occupants and others that may be on or near the road by taking advantage of their vehicle system capabilities.
The present invention is directed to methods and systems for implementing active safety countermeasures that can determine whether the driver is alert and take active countermeasures as necessary in order to safeguard the driver, the vehicle occupants, and other that may be on or near the vehicle as it travels on the vehicle pathway.